Disregarding Java for the moment... If you want to answer the question "can cross-platforms UIs be made to work?", do we really have to look any further than our web browsers?
And I don't just mean the HTML content, I'm thinking about the whole application. Chrome looks the same regardless of whatever OS it's running on, as does Firefox. Coming back to Java then; both Netbeans and Eclipse maintain pages listing applications built on their respective platforms: http://platform.netbeans.org/screenshots.html <http://platform.netbeans.org/screenshots.html> http://www.eclipse.org/community/rcp.php <http://www.eclipse.org/community/rcp.php>These lists are by no means complete, or even up to date! On 13 September 2010 22:28, clay <claytonw...@gmail.com> wrote: > OK, here are a few Java rich-client based apps that I've heard of > through non-developer channels: > > - Minecraft: All my gamer friends, most of whom are not into software > development at all, are raving about this. I was shocked to see that > it was actually made in Java. It is 3D as well. Very low-fi 3D, but > still 3D. Beyond Micecraft there a few other good Java games (Revenge > of the Titans) and some emulators written in Java. > - Interactive Animated Data Visualizations. I was reading one of my > favorite business + economics web sites last month and they linked > some really cool interactive data visualizations, that were implmented > in Java (I can't find the link). HTML is standard for basic charts > with very limited animation + interactivity. Flash is the most popular > for more rich content, but Java is the third most common runtime for > this. > - Baby Names. The second link on Google for "baby names" (no quotes) > is NameVoyager which is a really neat name data visualization > implemented in Java. > - Maple, the mathematics software toolkit. Largely done in rich > client Java. > - Interactive academic applets. For the college classes that I've > taken recently, many of them feature interactive applets that > demonstrate some concept. > > Two technical showpieces > > - ThinkFree Office Suite: Obviously, this never achieved success, but > technically it's very impressive. If, hypothetically, this was a free > application, and they removed the ads and intentional restricions on > saving to their servers rather than to local disks, this would be a > better rich client office suite than OpenOffice or, for my purposes, > Microsoft Office. Then again, I have already switched to Google Docs > as my primary office authoring suite. > - MoneyDance: I replaced Quicken with this in the past. I've since > moved on to web-client, cloud-hosted mint.com, which makes much more > sense than a rich client, but back before mint.com, MoneyDance was an > excellent commercial desktop app. Worked great on Linux and Windows. > The interace was definitely nicer than Quicken ever was. > > You already dismissed it, but IDEs are a shining example. I have met > serveral completely non-Java PHP, Python, and Ruby developers using > either Eclipse, NetBeans, or IntelliJ. Those tools are widely regarded > as expertly designed products with very complex user interfaces. > > > On Sep 13, 2:49 pm, Casper Bang <casper.b...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > That is not my experiences, you generally can NOT just expect a Swing > > app to look and feel correct all over. I have written a fair amount of > > Swing and it's more complex and slower performing than native > > bindings. You'll find the menu bar wrong placed on Mac, widget > > background discolored on Linux, EDT paint issues etc. So this is > > actually about the only point I agree with Steve Jobs on; native > > widget toolkit is the only way to go if you want to make your users > > happy. > > Of course, writing software from the ground up on a native GUI SDK > produces better results than using a higher-level cross platform > abstraction or a port from a different GUI SDK. That's generally known > and not debated. But that doesn't mean native GUI SDKs are "the only > way to go". There's a trade off: finer points of quality and > performance and integration vs. cross platform support. > > So, if you agree with Steve Jobs on this, why are you so evangelical > about MonoTouch, when that obviously adds a layer of abstraction > between the application and the underlying native SDKs? Even the > fanatical .NET + C# developers that I personally know who are doing > iOS hobby projects have begrudgingly used Objective-C and showed > little interest in MonoTouch, precisely because they want to avoid an > added layer of API and complexity to support. > > > Yet look at how well they are doing; invading Linux, Android, iPhone/ > > iPad etc. I still say you will be hard pressed finding popular Java > > desktop applications beyond the developer crowd but I guess we'll just > > have to agree to disagree. > > So, you suggest that desktop Java isn't doing well, but Mono is? May I > ask for your list of runaway successful or technical impressive apps > written in Mono? I see the stuff on the Wikpedia page like F-Spot, > Tomboy, and Unity, and of course Mono dev tools like MonoDevelop, > MonoTouch, and MonoDroid... Is that it? That's not very impressive. > > I thought, the purpose of Mono, was to spread and evangelize Microsoft > technologies and build Microsoft developer mindshare, by "invading > Linux, Android, iPhone/iPad", as you put it. At that, I guess they are > successful... > > May I ask, have you done much Mono development yourself, or is this > all from stuff you've read from Microsoft evangelist channels? > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "The Java Posse" group. > To post to this group, send email to javapo...@googlegroups.com. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > javaposse+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com<javaposse%2bunsubscr...@googlegroups.com> > . > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en. > > -- Kevin Wright mail / gtalk / msn : kev.lee.wri...@gmail.com pulse / skype: kev.lee.wright twitter: @thecoda -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Java Posse" group. To post to this group, send email to javapo...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to javaposse+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en.